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His-384 allotypic variant of factor H associated with age-related macular degeneration has different heparin binding

Simon J Clark1, Victoria A Higman, Barbara Mulloy

  • 1Medical Research Council (MRC) Immunochemistry Unit and Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, United Kingdom.

The Journal of Biological Chemistry
|June 22, 2006
PubMed

A polymorphism in complement factor H has recently been associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. A histidine rather than a tyrosine at residue position 384 in the mature protein increases the risk of AMD. Here, using a recombinant construct, we show that amino acid 384 is adjacent to a heparin-binding site in CCP7 of factor H and demonstrate that the allotypic variants differentially recognize heparin. This functional alteration may affect binding of factor H to polyanionic patterns on host surfaces, potentially influencing complement activation, immune complex clearance, and inflammation in the macula of AMD patients.

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